1972 F100 CV & Mark8 swap

[drc9723]

I've been wanting to do a bumpside project for a few years. My earliest memory of riding in a pickup truck as a kid, was in my grand father's 1968 F100. Living in Ontario, Canada, trucks in good condition are hard to come by. I watched classified adds, but nothing ever really came up. I knew i wanted a shortbox fleetside truck, which narrowed the search more...

I just happened to be talking to someone and they mentioned to try this "guy" they knew, he might have what i was looking for.
As luck would have it, he did and it was close to home, only an hr. drive. A 1972 SWB F100 from South Carolina, that he had bought years ago with the thought of restoring, was sitting in his shed. He no longer had the time to spend on the truck, so after some talking, a deal was reached and the truck was mine!

Over the past few months i have been collecting pieces, with a plan in mind. I bought a 2007 crown vic, that i've removed the IFS from. I also purchased a 1993 Lincoln Mark8 that I will remove the engine and IRS from. (I got the EVTM and factory wiring diagrams for the Mark to help with the engine swap)

I don't have the skills that some do on this forum, but I'm looking forward to learning as I go. This will be my first attempt at an automotive project. Over the years I've restored antique tractors, so I'm hoping this won't be much more complicated.
I'm sure the project wont go as quickly as I'd like. (we have a 10 month old running around the house that seems to require a lot of my spare time!) I will update as I progress.

My thought for the body is to try to remove the light green paint to see what's under it. I like the idea of the patina look (i know some will say its just a fad). Hopefully the "Mallard Green" underneath is decent. The only real rust issue that i can find is small part of the cab floor at the rockers on each side.

I think I'm going to get a 67 thru 69 style painted grill to put in the truck, I like that look better then 70 thru 72 grills. I'll get painted front and rear bumpers to match the grill. And my initial thought is to run some steelies for rims. From what i can figure 18" full size spares from an Explorer should work with the CV IFS and i'll need some adapters to install them on the Mark IRS. I think 18"s with a smallish side wall would look good on this truck.

A big thanks to all the people who take the time to post in this forum. I've learned so much from reading (well mostly looking at pictures!)

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[michael9218]

Awesome find. Can't wait to follow along on your project. Remember, lots of pictures...

[yarko]

That truck looks pretty sweet. I like the color too. Where in Ontario Canada are you? I'm in the Simcoe area! Can't wait to see your progress!

[drc9723]

i'm near Kingston

[drc9723]

Thought I'd post an update. It's been way too long!
I haven't had much time to work on the 72.
I've been in the parts gathering stage.
The IFS is out of the crown Vic. I also cut the mounting bushing out the frame to weld into the truck frame.

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I was reading online about crown Vic's and happened to see that there was a steering shaft recall a couple years ago. My steering shaft is very rusty and that was the issue and was the reason for the recall.
I called my local Ford store, talked to the service manager and he ran my VIN. My car was in the recall and never was repaired. So long story short, he ordered a complete new steering shaft for me. I think I should be able to use most of it for the truck! Gotta love free parts!

I came across some 18" steelies from an Explorer in the classifieds for cheap, so I grabbed them. I think I'll put some 255/45R18's on all four corners.

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I also have collected a trac loc diff with 4.10 gears form a junk yard Ranger. I'll put the internals from it into the Mark VIII diff, when I get it out of the car.

I had a few hrs. on the weekend to myself, so I got some work done on the Mark VIII. Ive got most of the interior out of the car and am carefully pulling the complete wire harness (labelling everything as I go). There is a ton of wiring in this car!!! The EVTM is a huge help! I wouldn't want to try this without it!

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After I get the harness out, I'll start pulling the engine, trans, and IRS.

Hopefully the next update will be much quicker to come than this one was!

[poke em]

Sounds like a great project. Alot like mine with the CV front and Mark running gear and IRS. One thing though, with the Mark VIII rear being about 63" wide, the rear wheel track will be super narrow. I was using crown vic steelies (+38mm offset) on my swap and the only 5x4.25 to 5x4.5 adapters I could find were 1.25" thick, so it looked sort of goofy. I still have them if you need a set, you can have them for the cost of shipping. I have since redrilled my hubs to 5x4.5 and I'm running 94-04 mustang wheels with 2" adapters. Not my favorite wheels but good enough for now until I decide to either swap out the rear to a 3 link like Hackster's 2nd truck setup or order a super high price set of custom offset wheels.

With 1.25 spacer and higher offset wheel:


With 2.0" spacer and less offset:

[drc9723]

Sounds like a great project. Alot like mine with the CV front and Mark running gear and IRS. One thing though, with the Mark VIII rear being about 63" wide, the rear wheel track will be super narrow. I was using crown vic steelies (+38mm offset) on my swap and the only 5x4.25 to 5x4.5 adapters I could find were 1.25" thick, so it looked sort of goofy. I still have them if you need a set, you can have them for the cost of shipping. I have since redrilled my hubs to 5x4.5 and I'm running 94-04 mustang wheels with 2" adapters. Not my favorite wheels but good enough for now until I decide to either swap out the rear to a 3 link like Hackster's 2nd truck setup or order a super high price set of custom offset wheels.

Cool looking truck, i like it!

So now with the 2" adapters does it put the front and rear track width about the same?

I haven't decided exactly what my plan is for getting to 5x4.5 yet. That is a super generous offer on the 4.25 to 4.5 adapters! I'll let you know if I'd like to go that route. It might be a pain to get them into Canada though?

I agree with you, the Mustang wheels are ok, but i think i like the Steelie look better. Too bad they sit so narrow.

I'm curious, what size rubber do you have on those Mustang wheels?

[Monkey-1]

Nice project you have started. I'll be following along and checking out the progress.

[poke em]

Sounds like a great project. Alot like mine with the CV front and Mark running gear and IRS. One thing though, with the Mark VIII rear being about 63" wide, the rear wheel track will be super narrow. I was using crown vic steelies (+38mm offset) on my swap and the only 5x4.25 to 5x4.5 adapters I could find were 1.25" thick, so it looked sort of goofy. I still have them if you need a set, you can have them for the cost of shipping. I have since redrilled my hubs to 5x4.5 and I'm running 94-04 mustang wheels with 2" adapters. Not my favorite wheels but good enough for now until I decide to either swap out the rear to a 3 link like Hackster's 2nd truck setup or order a super high price set of custom offset wheels.

Cool looking truck, i like it!

So now with the 2" adapters does it put the front and rear track width about the same?

I haven't decided exactly what my plan is for getting to 5x4.5 yet. That is a super generous offer on the 4.25 to 4.5 adapters! I'll let you know if I'd like to go that route. It might be a pain to get them into Canada though?

I agree with you, the Mustang wheels are ok, but i think i like the Steelie look better. Too bad they sit so narrow.

I'm curious, what size rubber do you have on those Mustang wheels?

Thanks!

The width is 67" front and rear with the 2" spacers. The wheels are 30mm offset and the tires are 245/45/17. I'd like to find a set of 18" staggered wheels for a 94-04 so I can do the corvette caliper/14" rotor upgrade in the front, and fit some 295s on the back. After I had the hubs drilled I got some brackets for the rear that move the caliper out and allow you to use cobra 12" rotors from supercoupe performance. It hooks up pretty good with poly bushings and handles awesome. I also put a 1.25" sway bar on the rear from Addco which helped.

[drc9723]

Thought i should give a bit of an update...

I was able to find a few hours here and there throughout the fall to work on the project. Most of that time was spend pulling parts off the Mark VIII. (the rest of the wire harness, engine & trans, and complete IRS)

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So with everything stripped off the Mark VIII, i got it out of the shop a couple weeks ago and finally got the F100 moved in!

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[drc9723]

First job was to get the front suspension removed. Easy part was getting the twine I-beams gone. (just a simple unbolt and remove)

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Then the fun part. There's no easy way to go about getting those rivets out! I found what worked best for me was to grind off the head. Then I drilled a 9/32" hole about three quarters of the way thru the rivet. That left a blind hole for a 1/4" punch to fit into. Then I hit that punch with a BIG hammer! Some rivets came right out, but most took multiple swings!

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And then finally, was the even more fun part of getting the big cross member out. I'm glad I have a plasma cutter, it made this job go much faster! Here's what things look like after a couple hours of cutting, prying, hammering and grinding. (I guess I'm committed to the Crown Vic swap now?!)

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With the next bit of free time I have, I'll get some holes drilled for the Crown Vic IFS. With my OCD, I'm sure I'll measure and measure 100 times before putting the first hole in the frame! I did use the handy diagram that's been utilized multiple times on here (Thanks to Flyboy71) to make a template out of MDF to mark the hole locations. (I'm an engineer too, so I totally get what Flyboy said about 4yrs of school doing funny things to your brain! )

Hopefully I'll have another update in the near future!

Thanks for reading

[IN2FORD]

excellent excellent work!

Barry

[drc9723]

Thanks for the kind words Barry!

I've been following your build too, very impressive! I hope my project turns out 1/2 as nice as yours!

[hfdco4]

Great project, keep us updated.

[yarko]

I'm in the middle of doing the same swap on my 67. I'm using an Explorer rear end though. I'm dieting the wiring harness from the mark viii now. Keep us posted on your progress!